Recently, MP Serhiy Labaziuk was served with a notice of suspicion, as NABU and SAPO officers found that the MP had attempted to bribe Mustafa Nayem, head of the State Agency for Restoration. However, according to Fakty, MP Labaziuk is not the only example of those who go to the Rada to solve their own business issues.
This was reported by the Telegraph.
Rebuilding Ukraine, whose infrastructure has been severely damaged by Russian aggression, is an important component of ensuring a sustainable and successful present and future for all citizens. However, from the point of view of some individuals and business owners, reconstruction is a potential opportunity to get tidbits in the form of contracting agreements worth billions of hryvnias. MP Serhiy Labaziuk also saw such an opportunity in the reconstruction, asking a top official of the Ministry of Reconstruction to provide his company with contracts for the reconstruction of infrastructure facilities worth UAH 1 billion. For this, the MP and millionaire promised a “reward” of 3-5% of the cost of each contract, and then involved the company’s director to agree on further arrangements, Fakty reports.
“After receiving UAH 50 million for the contract to restore a destroyed bridge in one of the regions of Ukraine, the MP, through a proxy, provided the whistleblower, a top official of the State Agency for Reconstruction, with the promised percentage of USD 150 thousand. THE WHISTLEBLOWER WAS GIVEN A PROMISED INTEREST IN THE AMOUNT OF USD 150 THOUSAND. The transfer of the bribe took place in the parking lot of a Kyiv supermarket, and the money was in a Chinese box,” said Serhiy Rokun, NABU detective.
According to the journalists of the publication, in the rating of the richest Ukrainians, Forbes magazine ranked Serhiy Labaziuk 65th with assets worth $165 million. The main asset of the MP, who has been elected to parliament for the third time, is the Vitagro company with a land bank of 80 thousand hectares. Interestingly, the MP has repeatedly been involved in various scandals: receiving compensation from the state budget for renting a house or hotel room in Kyiv, voting for “dictatorial laws” during the Revolution of Dignity, a corruption scandal in 2014 related to the sale of state-owned construction materials by the MP’s company. And in 2016, Labaziuk beat up an SBU officer: he inflicted severe head injuries on the agency’s employee while he was on duty. At the time, the SBU was investigating Labaziuk, who was suspected of embezzling budget funds on a large scale.
“It is possible that even before that, Serhiy Labaziuk used not always transparent and legal methods to win tenders. So it is not surprising that this year the MP decided to “motivate” civil servants by offering Mustafa Nayem, the head of the State Agency for Reconstruction, money for “solving the issue” with the contract for repairs and construction of infrastructure facilities,” the Fakty article says.
The journalists also listed several other high-profile cases of illegal activities of MPs in 2023 that were exposed by NABU detectives. For example, on October 10, 2023, the NABU and the SAPO served MP Yaroslav Dubnevych with a notice of suspicion of organizing the seizure of state property (natural gas) worth more than UAH 2.1 billion and legalizing the proceeds of crime. At the end of October 2023, the NABU and the SAPO served a notice of suspicion to a current MP of seizing land plots of more than 320 hectares. It was MP Robert Horvat. On November 21, the NABU reported another case: a member of the Ukrainian parliament, a member of the Committee on Anti-Corruption Policy (according to the publication, it is Andriy Odarchenko) offered the head of the State Agency for Infrastructure Restoration and Development an undue benefit in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin in the amount of $50,000. In exchange for the money, the MP asked for assistance in obtaining funds from the fund for liquidation of the consequences of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation for the repair of the infrastructure facility under his control.
